/biz/ - Business & Finance

Being in the right place, at the right time, with the right idea.

Luck.

>>578333
This is what poor people actually think.

Plenty of people I know in real life or at least know of who have made themselves vast sums of money through hard work. Most of them are blue collar workers whose only formal education was an apprenticeship. They all own their own businesses and are top of their field.

Sure, they aren't stupid rich, but you don't need to be stupid rich to be comfortable. My boss is a butcher. He bought his wife's car for $138k outright. No finance, no nothing.

>>578333

Sorry, but no

>>578356

I'm talking more about the mega rich. Those people are literally beyond my comprehension

>>578330
>It seems to me that the most successful business people have absolutely no fear of failure and stress.
Potential profit is always determined by the risk involved, fear is the only enemy of your success.

>It amazes me how people can run huge corporations and delegate everything to others.
We actually lower our risks of a failure by doing so, because if you grow, and you always grow, when you have success, you have to handle the size and scarcity of liquidity connecting your decisions with the business involved.

>I guess I'm just not in any way cut out for business.
Yes, you are right, you are not.

>>578358
Talent. The ability to build a great empire.

>>578368
>>578356
I'm glad your anecdotal experience has irrefutably convinced you wealth is a function of hard work

I work hard, I'm broke

Janitors work harder, they're not wealthy

Soldiers work hard, they earn less than the hipster who gets a job in silicon valley after a 12 week boot camp

Single moms who work two jobs to make rent work even harder, they certainly aren't wealthy either

The only meaningful relationship with wealth is luck.

Random people who heard about bitcoin and decided to mine for kicks years ago? Luck

Being born into wealth? Luck

Coming up with XYZ app #59075235 that requires no technical merit, innovation or hard work and having it become stupidly popular? Luck

Trying to establish a relationship between wealth and hard work is what jews and other people in control do, to try and get their subjects to work harder for them.

"Work hard and surely you will accomplish everything you desire!"

No; wealth is not a sure thing even if you work your fingers to the bone.

Polish VIVID Games, NOW!
+45% and the course is frozen for the rest of the day. That is how you do it. I won't sell below 10 PLN

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/fi-42.1.VVD.WAR

>>578375
Why is everyone on this board so negative?

Hit Ctrl+F. You'll notice the only post that includes the phrase "hard work" is your own.
Stop blaming other people for your problems. I myself am increasing my wealth exponentially. I make around 3x what I did last year.

>>578375
i'm sure this guy is poor, he's got the poor person mentality

ITT: Plebs.

>>578375
>Coming up with XYZ app #59075235 that requires >no technical merit, innovation or hard work and >having it become stupidly popular? Luck
I keked.

>>578385
No, the post I replied to (yours) says:
>Plenty of people I know in real life or at least know of who have made themselves vast sums of money through hard work

Read back the last two words for me rich guy

>>578386
No shit sherlock, can't you read:
>I work hard, I'm broke

Maybe there's some magic relationship between wealth and illiteracy. Good job on providing an actual argument too btw

>>578392
because it takes a CS degree and tons of hard work to make FlappyBird, AngryBirds, DoodleJump etc

>>578330
Stock & Real estate speculation, or they inherit it.

>>578375
when people say that hard work can make you wealthy, they don't mean that a janitor will make $250k by sweeping really fast

>>578403
What does it mean then? Some subjective and judgemental definition?

>>578408
You assume all work is equal. A surgeon makes a lot more money than a janitor because cutting and fixing people takes more brain than swiping floors.

Hard and smart work is what makes you rich, not hard work alone. Luck has little to do with it.

>>578394
Are you familiar with the work required when it comes to programming games?

>>578394
Let me guess, youre some J2EE enterprise faggot or a C++ wizard who programs device drivers and thinks app development is for kiddies?
They made 50 games before they hit gold with Flappy Bird. You'd shit yourself trying to beat those odds. I have more respect for these types of people than corporate drones who try to do software development.

>>578421
>You assume all work is equal
Hard work is hard work, don't call it that if you don't mean it. If you mean "hard work but also being smart" then say that.

>Luck has little to do with it.
Luck has everything to do with it. How exactly are you supposed to get smart if you aren't born into wealth?

You could be a fucking genius and be an incredibly hard worker; doesn't mean shit if you don't have the opportunity to go to school or start a career, does it?

>Are you familiar with the work required when it comes to programming games?
I'm acutely aware since I'm writing several applications myself and have been programming for the better part of 3 years. The effort that goes into programming something like FlappyBird or Angry Birds is trivial and can be taught to any kid in highschool over the course of a couple of weeks. It does not require hard work or in depth knowledge at all.

Wealth is related to luck, and sometimes (though very rarely in recent times) just straight up good ideas.

>>578431
Ok this is bullshit. Literally everyone has the opportunity to go to school. Even if you have to take out a fucking student loan. In fact, fuck school. Everyone has the opportunity to learn everything in the history of forever and apply it as needed. Jesus this just motivated me. You're an idiot who obviously doesn't think he can create his own destiny. 7/10 made me reply.

>>578430
>They made 50 games before they hit gold with Flappy Bird

I don't know who "they" is since FlappyBird was made by one dude, but anyways:

>The second example submitted by Sam Keene called BouncyBrick shows how you can create a SprityBird game mechanic with only 150 lines of code with an emphasis on mimicking the exact physics of the real Flappy Bird game.

https://maniacdev.com/2014/02/source-code-examples-showing-how-to-create-a-flappy-bird-game-with-sprite-kit

>150 lines
^ This is high school level stuff. Actually I'd feel comfortable assigning it to elementary school students in grades 6+

>You'd shit yourself trying to beat those odds.
>odds
What's your argument here? Lets assume that the FlappyBird creator *did* work hard because they wrote 50 apps before one 'caught on'

Isn't that the very definition of luck? It certainly wasn't the accumulation of all that hard work that resulted in FlappyBird going viral.

OP here

All this talk of "luck". It is nonsense, even I can see that and I have already admitted to be baffled by the wealthy.

You do not accumulate billions of dollars and own huge corporations with thousands of employees due to "luck". The focus, desire and drive required must be superhuman compared to the average worker

>>578375
Do you even know what hard work even fucking is? When rich people say work hard is the first thing that comes to your mind that "I should be a janitor," guess what soldiers, janitors and moms are all things that anyone could do thats why no one will pay for it. HOw much would you personally pay one of these people? Hard work is doing something that actually matters, the more important it is the more people are willing to pay, in general, so when you trying to become wealthy you have to build something that people will pay billions of dollars for and in order to get the skills, make those relationships, earn that trust and build those assets you need to dedicate a lot of effort and take a lot of risks. Being a janitor doesn't take a lot of effort anyone could do it.

>>578394
these people aren't massively wealthy they're rich at best

start a business, raise capital, sell business for millions, rinse repeat

>>578437
Do you really need me to post a picture of a celebrity?

>>578435
Believe what you want. Putting your nose to the grindstone is only always beneficial to those who control you; there's never any guarantee you'll benefit from it.

I feel like I'm going to make a lot of money, I just feel like I know how to market, how to create an experience
>watching The Profit in gf's room
>she's extremely cute, looks underage and is semi animated in her faces, etc
>the profit uses his catch phrase "blah blah blah the process"
>immediately turn to her and tell her she needs to follow the process, ask her if she wants to be famous, wants to be special. Wants to make money
>tell her I'm going to borrow my friends camera, put makeup on her legs ass, everywhere (she has some pimples on her ass and a slight darkening on the inner thigh ), take pretty pictures of her, put her on backpages etc, and tell her hoe she shouldn't talk much with her mouth to custoneed, but with her eyes and face (playing on youth/innocence )
But she doesn't seem interested. I think once I get to the point when I can make her/people interested in what I want them to do, is when I'll start making real money

>>578330
You just need a bunch of cronies in the right places. Learn from the jews.

The ultra wealthy are old money. Their empires and dynasties have been around for centuries.

The visibly rich you see everyday don't even compare to the gravity of some individuals

I think its a combination of luck a good idea and skill but im just a student.

>Good idea: meant in the way do people like your idea? Isit addictive or something like that.

>Skills: can you realize your idea in a proper way? In terms of marketing networking or diy.

>luck: because people need to know you product first. if your idea isn't spread enough you wont make billions.

Creating the good idea is the hardest part because most of the times people do it uncontiously. When setting up a business luck has very much to do Wheter it is extremely succesfull or not.

Not being poor is a different story everyone in 1st world countrys can get out of poverty by just spending their money on the right things. Luckily for me many people can't handle money so i'm relatively rich and have the opportunity to exploit their stupidity when i finished university.

Or be a pop star or professional sportsman in a popular sport but that is also based on luck because dont tell me justin bieber got rich because of his great businessplan..

>>578330

Develop rules that you follow in order to build wealth.

You should create rules that, at a minimum, require that you spend your time with the most profitable opportunity, and that you dedicate time to finding and learning about new opportunities.

Most people and businesses become stagnant by wasting their time on things that have little financial benefit.

>>578330
luck

as a millionaire, let me tell you that it's a 100% luck, everything is

I can always spot Americans on /biz/ because they're the ones who have absolutely no clue and have really "drunk the kool-aid" on getting rich. Yes, your all just temporarily embarrassed millionaires and anyone who points out the value of luck just has a poor mentality.

Congrats on believing this fairytale. Now when you actually leave your basements and see how fortunes are actually made and lost, you'll look back at yourselves in embarrassment.

>>578433
>Literally everyone has the opportunity to go to school.
Except for people born with disabilities. Or people born in regions where they're too poor to provide school. Or regions where the life expectancy is low. I could go on.

But luck doesn't matter. Everything is under your control!

>>578488
I'd say connections are the #1 way to rise to the top.

this guy >>578470 mentioned Bieber, who met Usher

>>578493
Connections are a function of luck. Bieber meeting Usher was luck.

>>578441
First of all some celebrities are an exception however they are not actually that wealthy compared to the actual mega wealthy. Second of all even if celebrities are doing retarded shit people are paying them to do that so they are providing some value they are just giving it to retards.

>>578484
I'm surprised that you haven't jumped on the "its not luck, its hard work!" bandwagon

Almost every wealthy person I've met sours very quickly at any kind of suggestion that they're wealth wasn't due to their hard work or intelligence or whatever.

I think admitting that your wealth and your lot in life has a lot to do with luck takes the piss out of a lot of people because it means they can't take as much credit for their accomplishments.

>>578496
Well the fact they are celebrities in the first place is luck. And fine, if you want to go ultra-wealthy lets talk about oil sheiks. Did they earn their wealth through hard work?

>>578494
True. But at the same time, you have to put yourself in position to get lucky. A guy who works diligently and takes smart risks is much more likely to be lucky than a guy who gives up and jacks off all day.

>>578501
>Almost every wealthy person I've met sours very quickly at any kind of suggestion that they're wealth wasn't due to their hard work or intelligence or whatever.
See that's the complete opposite of my experience. Every rich person I know when I asked them about "their story", they mention stuff like chance occurrences happening. They readily acknowledge the luck they have benefited from.

In my experience, it's the poor people who tend to have the opposite attitude and believe they're the hot shit and just need to work hard and they'll be rich in no time.

>>578505
>But at the same time, you have to put yourself in position to get lucky. A guy who works diligently and takes smart risks is much more likely to be lucky than a guy who gives up and jacks off all day.
I agree with that statement 100%. "Fortune does favour the bold" as they say.

But remember there are a countless people who did all the right things and never got lucky.

>>578509
And there are even more people who say "fuck working hard at anything or even trying to be innovative. The shits all luck and corporate American fairy dust the Jews made up anyway" who stay poor.

>>578513
Right and some of those people won the lottery and became far richer than many of the people working hard and taking risks.

That's luck too.

There's a cognitive dissonance people don't like with luck. Because it means they're not in full control of their lives which makes them uncomfortable. They prefer to fool themselves into believing they can control it all.

>>578515
I thank God everyday I was born in the first world. Imagine those undercaste people in India. They have literally no chance at meaningful success. It's sad.

>>578518
Yep. I know that feeling. What's worse is that the world's greatest scientist who could completely revolutionise society could be some kid in Bangladesh but because he'll never get the opportunity to use his talents, he and the world will lose out.

>>578504
>And fine, if you want to go ultra-wealthy lets talk about oil sheiks. Did they earn their wealth through hard work?
Y-Yes :^)

>>578501
Rich people aren't (usually) smarter, nicer or better people. They're just rich(er). They make money, and then consider themselves to be superior to everybody else, because money, or something. Money means power, you can essentially buy the time of others with it, but it doesn't make you any better.

If being smart was the key, then every autist on here would be a millionaire, and if hard work was, then every hard working guy out there would be, and if persistance was, then the guys that try to start stuff up again and again, but end up broke with no pension and a bottle of alcohol nearby, would. What you can safely say, is that it boils down to being lucky.

>>578507
"Rich" (newly rich) people do it a lot too, though. A favorite of mine is when they advise others to "not pass up investment opportunities". That's just fuckin' golden, like I'm turning down investment opportunities over here, yeah, back to the corn field I go massa'.

You can be wealthy through hard work, but I think you need at least a little luck to become rich

>>578580
There is a lot of misunderstanding on /biz/ considering "hard work".
Back-breaking labor, fast-paced labor, having 3 part-time jobs is not hard work. I would know since I used to spend my winter break at an assembly line of a packaging plant...when I was 14. And later on unload and assemble furniture (lots of granite sinks, really helped me get in shape). It was shitty, tiring and unfulfilling and ultimately pushed me to excel at school to get to uni on a small scholarship. I did not have to think, make models and verify them at any of those jobs. They had no experimental component. There was no risk of failure, anyone physically fit could do it.

Here are a few examples of hard work - a researcher coming up with a new theory, an engineer building a prototype to verify the theory, a manager optimally allocating resources, an entrepreneur deciding on a product evolution path. All of those involve risks, where failure is catastrophic (lots of time, money and business lost).

>>578518
>I thank God everyday I was born in the first world.
I know what you mean, but the whole "you're lucky to have been born here"-argument doesn't actually hold, no matter how much they want to guilt-trip you over being born.

If "you" were born in India, you wouldn't be "you", you'd be someone else. So, while it might make sense at first glance, it actually doesn't, because it's not just moving you to another location, it's re-creating you entirely as "not you".

>>578520
Noble thoughts, but I don't agree that you can count hypothetical progress lost like that. Yes, there could be a genius somewhere in the slums, but then again, if he was a genious, why would he be in the slums? It's not just luck, if you were really that intelligent, you'd find a way to at least make it out of the shitty situation you were born in. Why? Because you'd be surrounded by idiots.

Brain drain is huge in China/India, because the people that manage to get out of the bog don't simply want to lord over the rest of the mud creatures, they want a good life, so they move to the west. In the west, they may simply be average, but that's ok. That's one of the reasons why India and other countries have a hard time - smart and industrious people don't want to stick around dumb and lazy ones.

If people were poor here (western europe), they'd get together and help eachother out. That's what happened a long time ago, people organized and got themselves collectively out of the bog. No magic bird came around to drop bags of rice on our heads. But (brown) people won't, for some reason. Somehow, them not doing what we managed to, is commonly blamed away at us, as if it was our fault. The thing that's happened here, is that we've progressed so far past the stage that we take for granted that they understand that you all need to work together for a better life. They don't. They're simply not developed enough mentally, and there's not much we can do about it, they have to figure it out themselves.

>>578488
Gotta second that.

Also if you look at the rankings of billionaire 90% of them were already very rich or inherited a lot of wealth.
Exceptions are very rare, especially outside the nerds that founded google/windows/Facebook/WhatsApp

So a "normal individual" from a developed country might get to the million with luck and determination. But no way in hell you'll become billionaire if you weren't born rich.

>>578597
You had me until
>a manager optimally allocating resources
Good one.

>300k starting picture.jpg

But yeah, I know what you mean. None of those roles you mentioned makes people "rich", though. Not by any stretch of the imagination, if you start from OPs point of view (I presume, anyway). You can retire after a decade or so of a decent position, sure, but what people get riled up about is someone lighting his cigar with a $100 bill and then going on about how hard his work is, while he rubs his head and watches baseball all day. That's what "hard work" actually means, not working hard, not risking much, but having others do it for you and then going with one of a few approaches. Should it fail, of course, you'll just blame the guy that came up with the plan that you picked.

It's a stupid example, but take Dragons Den (it's TV, I know). Their origin story is usually something like "I was a useless hobo in a suit, and I hadn't done anything my life, but then some guy out of nowhere loaned me $100k even though I hadn't had a business before and there was no guarantee to get his money back - and now I'm rich! Hard work!", and then they recoil like cats at a pool of water, as soon as someone wants a smidge of the chance that they themselves got once (by "someone", always that guy that just hands out half a million in loans to somebody with no proven business).

>>578608
It's possible to become a billionaire, but you'll be so old that a billion won't be much anyway, and you won't be able to enjoy it with a catheter up your dick anyway. Let's hope for those age-reversing miracle drugs, eh?

>>578597
>Back-breaking labor, fast-paced labor, having 3 part-time jobs is not hard work

Gotta love america!
Do you even realize what you are saying?

Also point out to me how any of your coworkers on the factory line, the ones who aren't working hard according to you, have any opportunity to make risky decisions like choosing product path or giving the go on a prototype?
How can they start "working hard"?

>>578520
Speaking of which and I don't mean to Digress.

The lattes contraception revolutIon "male contraception" was develop in India "15 years ago" now that the patent it's Dead and that big pharma can get a hold to it finally they are planning to move on ahead on to human trials.

Most wealth are the direct or indirect by product of luck but by the same token.

You have to try to get Lucky

Other are just scammers manipulating things to their favor ala goldman sachs.

The mega rich are usually on Arabia and are oil sheikhs.

Or in AmeRica and cartel associates.

Large financial empires do come from dedication and hard work, a long with having the right connections, the right information, leverage, ect.

The world of business is by no means an even playing field - far from it - of course there's no reason to protest this.

>>578625
Europe holds a shitload of old fortunes and industrial families like the ones owning BMW, LVMH, Zara or l'Oreal.
Eastern Europe and Russia in particular is filled with oligarchs preying on public goods after the end of the soviet era.
China and south east asia have both a lot of megawealthy businessmen and corrupt officials.

>>578632
Europe has old and dying really fast money and on top of that getting screwed by America.

Asia has new and developing money but is a huge bubble, chinks are old comers to the wealthy game and are going exactly what you would expect of new money types.

Investing in hollow ventures (ghost cities, high wAys to no where etc.) Or just throwing it away in stupid chink shit.

I doubt most Asian countries will stay rich specially one's other markets start to emerge.

>>578638
I Meant to say new money

>>578611
A good manager, especially first-line is hard to find and can be a deal-breaker for the company and the team.
>>578621
Im not in the States. The people who worked with me were 1) Immigrants with poor knowledge of the language who needed a job asap 2) People who did not bother to finish highschool 3) Outright idiots and mentally deficient retards.
They would routinely snitch on each other to the line leader, and make each others lives as difficult as possible. It was a cesspool.

So you're asking when did they have an opportunity to make risky decisions? All their life. Finishing high-school and at least learning a trade, taking an apprenticeship, working under someone was achievable for any of them. All they needed was a little drive, but they didn't even have that. The situation is something out of the joke of a man standing on top of his house during a flood and waiting for God to save him, when other people in boats are offering him help. They had every opportunity to make a decent living for themselves, and at every turn they squandered it. Society nowadays thinks that a pawn can turn into a queen in a single step. This is a mistake - you need to pass all the steps of the chessboard (and eliminate your competition) to turn into a queen.

>>578642
>first-line
One that doesn't get paid shit. Right. So the thumb-twiddlers that take no responsibilites if things go wrong, but do take all of the bonuses, they're still the ones that work hard?

Cute story about the chess game, but it's more akin to playing and winning the game of chess by chance, rather than having any knowledge that you play it, or how to play it, and then claiming that you're just more skilled. I've got a bachelor, can't even get a job. Fuck it, I'm going to have to start forex with real money at this rate.

You guys are missing the OP point.
>How on Earth do people become massively wealthy? Seriously, it fascinates the hell out of me.

The wealthy know that that goal is not hard work. The goal is to get middle class losers to do the hard work for you.

I'm not immensely rich but I live off pretty well. I can afford myself many things and I don't want to think about money. And it's getting better for a couple of years.

It's really about hard work and connections (if we're talking about running a business). Mostly. Know how to talk to people, rich patrons or investors.
And then, you got to know the market. No matter what, but try to learn the most. Read as much as you can (financial and business newspapers), look at the prices everywhere. In a restaurant? Ask what items are selling well. Even when you're just out buying a bottle of water, pay attention. You'd be surprised to see that you can be creative with anything. Now, I run two companies that are absolutely not related, market-wise. And I plan to open another one in the next 5 years, if everything goes well of course.
And if you have interesting and trustful contacts, you can play around with it. Do not reveal too many secrets though.
I am indeed lucky because I have a good family and I've had an excellent education. But I also dedicate a lot of my time to it.

Also, do not try to fuck over with anyone. Sure, some did become successful by being a massive dick and fraud, but I've seen quite many finally burnt to crust at the end. Be clean, be wise, be trustful.

>>578678
>
Also, do not try to fuck over with anyone. Sure, some did become successful by being a massive dick and fraud, but I've seen quite many finally burnt to crust at the end. Be clean, be wise, be trustful.

This made me genuinely confused

get educated

work in a field that promotes good work

make your own business/s

accumulate assets

in every aspect of your life work towards increasing said assets

lastly a bit of luck

most wealthy people never stop working they are self motivated and driven

and your done

>>578683
I am saying this because I've seen some of them really got their lives ruined for fucking over too much.
Like some dude who ripped off another one. A couple of years later, a lawyer finds about something else about him. Whenever you type his name on Google now, you'll only see news articles about him scamming. His career is ruined. I feel kind of bad for almost working with him.

>>578434
You are ignoring the hundreds of thousands of lines of code he wrote creating games before he came across that idea. You're also ignoring the years of learning to program before those lines of code. He didn't sit down, type out 150 lines of code, and suddenly start making $50,000/day.

You can see the same "this is easy" attitude in all the people who spend the next few weeks making clones of his app. The fact that it was an "easy" app to build discounts all the work he put in before getting to that point. That is disingenuous at best.

>>578441
>Putting your nose to the grindstone
Why do you assume everyone works for someone else? That is a poor mentality. The overwhelming majority of self-made people have started their own businesses/practices.

Like the based Thomas Jefferson said:
"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

like others have said, it's not hard work as much as it is smart work. If you're a janitor and you want to be rich, you don't work harder as a janitor. You use your brain to realize being a janitor isn't going to be rich, and you take control of your life and do something that is.
Whether thats going back to school, learning on your own, researching, bettering yourself, actively looking for opportunities, meeting people, or fuck it even starting your own janitor empire. To increase your chances of success, do something that you actually enjoy so that you don't have to fight yourself to get motivated to do it.

If you're a poor shit stain in india, you fucking hustle and use what's around you. Find nickels and dimes and save them, don't by hookers and candy bars. Put that money into getting out of the shitty place you're in (india) and go somewhere that increases your chances of getting to where you want to be.

Success isn't luck. I could goto the casino and keep putting money in a slot machine, and eventually win. Sure there may be a 1 in a million chance, but if i keep playing a million times I'm eventually going to win. Life is the same way. Some people get "lucky" and hit it sooner than others. But most of you faggots are too pussy to keep putting coins in, so you'll never win.

Some guy running his own successful business with an Audi parked outside of his McMansion in the nice part of town is rich.

Some guy running his own multi-national corporation which has been in the family for the last 150 years, with a fleet of custom cars, a helicopter and private yacht parked in his separate garage on his 1000 acre family estate.

>>578330
three ways:

>1. Luck.
Flappy Bird, the lottery, your YA novel gets a movie adaptation, find a Picasso at a yard sale, whatever.

>2. Neopotism.
Trust funds, inheritances, a friend gets you a sweet job, etc.

>3. Illegal shit
Drugs, weapons, slaves, fraud, bribes, probably the most common method.

>>578755
Flappy Bird was great market fit after tons of attempts, see >>578703

FB and the novel example are examples of preparation meeting opportunity after relentless work.

Finding a Picasso is luck.

>>578755
To do any of these, even more at 3, you must be smart as fuck.

>>578461
this is objectively and measurably wrong.

>>578375
Stay pleb faggot

>>579253
>dat serial killer stare
I had to look up his mugshot to see if he actually was one. He wasn't, just a fraudster.

>>578398
correct.
my boss started speculating real estate 15 years ago. now has a wealth of over 25 million from a 15k loan from a group of friends.

>>578783
>FB and the novel example are examples of preparation meeting opportunity after relentless work.
No, no, no, no, no.

How many people out there have published shittty little video game apps in the past few years? Thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands. How many YA novels get published every year? A lot.

What separates Flappy Bird from Monkey Poo Fling 2000 and Divergence from Tiger's Eye? Why did they make it big while all the thousands of other people doing literally the exact same thing and turning out the same quality garbage are no-name chumps? Luck.

If you've got a hundred monkeys at a hundred typewriters the one that writes Shakespeare isn't the hardest working or the smartest monkey, he's just the lucky winner that was bound to happen eventually.

>>578445

buddy you sound a bit nuts

>>578431
not trying to be rude, or insult you but you have a very jaded view on the world.
its easy to blame the success of others on a magical force instead of blaming yourself for your shortcomings.


>How exactly are you supposed to get smart if you aren't born into wealth?

you get amazing grades in high school and get a full paid scholarship into a mid league uni, requires little wealth, just hard work and ambition.

>You could be a fucking genius and be an incredibly hard worker; doesn't mean shit if you don't have the opportunity to go to school or start a career, does it?

your definition of genius is skewed by media.
you can consider a genius someone who can recipe pi to 10 million digits but that is not a wealth creating genius skill.
a genius would exploit inefficiencies in the world and create a solution for it, then using his intellect would create that business into a success or cut their loss.

>Hard work is hard work, don't call it that if you don't mean it. If you mean "hard work but also being smart" then say that.

If i tell you to hammer a nail with your fist you would complain that the work is too hard and the task seems impossible. I give you a hammer and ask for the same task you will be done in a second.
you can make the argument that the hammer is education or wealth but its not correct to say so.
Currently if you want to achieve wealth you have very little options, become the most talented at an activity( singing, drawing, sports) or work in a profession where you have an infinite salary potential( ie starting/taking over a business, real estate, programming apps)
General rule of thumb, work smarter not harder.

>>578330
>Intelligence, ambition, drive, confidence, ruthlessness, adaptability....
There are plenty of people with all of these things, and they are generally better off than the average person because of it. However not all of them make it. Facebook and myspace for example, there were plenty of website similar to these where people could create their own little webpage type thing, there were things like AOL, yahoo and MSN messenger, however due to forces outside of Zuckerberg's control his website became a success. He stumbled across a layout and theme that happened to appeal to people, he wasn't a psychologist or an advertiser or anything, he was a programmer, so he couldn't have forseen that.

I hate to attribute it to "luck", these people are indeed talented, but luck was partly to do with it.

Think of it as a lottery and the only way to play is to be intelligent, ambitious, driven, confident, ruthless, adaptable etcetera...

>>579304
websites*

Mega rich become rich from equity.

Work hard to get your first skilled/professional job. Start saving up money and then buy securities.

Own stock in a lot of start-up companies. Sell them. Buy more. Sell them, buy enough to be on the board of directors. Sell that... And move to other boards. After a while, you'll have a nice sum of money.

>>578375
>Single moms who work two jobs to make rent work even harder, they certainly aren't wealthy either
If single moms were smart they wouldn't be single moms, OP.

>syndicalists
>muh labor theory of value
good goy.

>>578501

"Luck" defines forces that are outside human control. Their parents secured a financial future for them and therefore, it was not luck, but the actions of their parents that made them well off. They sacrificed so they wouldn't have to.

Don't be stupid, they inherit it all because it's acceptable in our society for families to hoard extremely large sums of money for generation after generation regardless of whether or not they worked to earn it.

>>579312
best answer

most people work a job and add money, at best put some of it in a pension and put their kids through college

they multiply their holdings

>>578375

Back to pol with you, you impoverished basement dweller

Assets.

Okay. To summarize, there are two ingredients.
1) Work. You have to put a significant amount of effort into creating a base for wealth accumulation. You need to have a plan and skills to achieve it, then you execute it.
It is akin to purchasing a lottery ticket. If you don't buy a ticket, you have 0% chance to win. If you buy a ticket, your chance goes from 0 to 1/n, basically it goes up an infinite amount.

2) Luck. Once your plan is in motion, luck will decide whether it succeeds. The quality of the work you did in the first part dictates the amount of luck you will need to be successful. If you didn't do well (e.g. you actually bought a lottery ticket instead of creating a product), you will need an impossible amount of luck to succeed. E.g. flappy bird was a piece of shit, there were many identical games before and afterwards. It was a terrible plan badly executed, yet it succeeded. The guy didn't even do anything, it was his third similar app that he wrote for fun after work. It took him a week to write it, he stole all of the artwork from Nintendo. Yet, the stars did align. 100% of people who program for a living could've written it, many did, just at a wrong time, or had a wrong title, or wrong art, or didn't get reviewed by Pewdiepie etc.

So basically, success comes from maximizing the quality of part 1, which in turn decreases the amount of luck required. Talented and experienced people manage to sway their odds of success so much that they don't need that much luck anymore, if any. Also, by repeatedly trying and failing to a different degree, you gain experience, as well as multiply the odds of being successful eventually. It is important to make initial tries without taking up too much risk (lean startup etc) so that you don't ruin yourself and can quickly reiterate the process.

>>579415
overly underrated post.

>>578703
Are you a programmer? Do you have any idea how difficult it is? Do you have any good reason to believe that "hundreds of thousands of LOC" or "years of learning to program" actually went into getting good enough to write a flappy bird-esque game?

Those were rhetorical questions; you clearly have zero idea what it takes to write simple games and apps that the flappy bird creator was putting out there. Anyone reading this who isn't retarded can churn out apps like that within a month. There's no hard work involved, you just need basic reading comprehension and some patience. Flappy bird was a lucky fluke.

>>578706
>Why do you assume everyone works for someone else?
Because the majority of people in a modern economy work for others.

>The overwhelming majority of self-made people have started their own businesses/practices
Yes, and 80% of all start ups fail. Even if they are great ideas and have tons of quality work and hype and blood and sweat and tears, EIGHTY PERCENT FAIL. That means a huge chunk of it is luck. You're in denial if you think there's actually a set method people can follow to get rich.

>>578330
>How on Earth do people become massively wealthy
Its work, luck and be willing to do things others arent.

Look at the 50 most wealthy men in existence. How many of them do you think got their just because of hard work? A large amount is wealthy due to natural resources. They dont only require you do be lucky, but in most cases scrupulous.

People like Bill Gates are intelligent, but his sort of career required him to be at right place in the right moment. By doing so he basically established a monopoly in the corporate software department.

The super rich cater to the needs of the masses. What do people need? What are the products everyone requires? Thats why people are so successful in telecommunication, entertainment and clothes.

Being the first is what matters. Its hard to actually tell whether this is luck or skill. Coming up with an idea that ends up bieng successful has little to do with intelligence. However, properly turning that idea into a billion dollar company means that you made a lot of correct decisions.

People who are billionaires simply made a shit ton of good decisions. Whether you wanna call that lucky is up to you. I am pretty sure all of them had multiple 50/50 situations in the beginning. They simply guessed right.

>>578375
the thing your missing, the multiplier is intelligence.

There are african women working harder than anyone on the planet and their annual income is less than 10 usd, they carry wood and water on their heads.

They aren't using their intelligence.

Intelligence would engineer a distribution system, and automate it, maybe get some venture captial to backstrap it with a sound business plan and strong pitch.

Then their returns would be 10,000%+ for hour of labor.

Those fat neckbeards in the valley are programming productivity, their code is 1000s of times more productive than flipping a burger.

>>578375
That's because working hard is not enough to be wealthy you have to also work in something that has demand or create something that generates demand.

Anyone could be a janitor, anyone could be a soldier, anyone could fuck up and become a single parent, but only one person comes up with a brilliant idea like the Apple II.

That's the secret. But then again we were raised to believe that working hard and following our dreams was enough when it is a lie.

>>579304
>>579307
>>579415
>>579417
yeah so it is a combination of hard work and luck

another important factor might be working smart, people generally don't become successful by working for someone else

>>578435
I'm certain that what all these fine cucks mean by 'luck' is 'the chance to have an idea heard, considered or paid for outright'. You see, working hard is something most anyone can do, when then opportunity is given. But most people have common sense and realize not everyone will have the chance to be heard. This is why the vast majority of people grow hard skin, turn off their brains, and settle.

You can drop 100 people on an island and tell them there is $500K in a random coconut - all have an equal ability to find it, the difference would be who is closest, aka, who is luckiest.

People born into wealth fit the 'closest' category. They have resource available to them that normal people would first have to work for. They have connections already established that normal people would have to work for. At the age of 16 any royal child would have the opportunity to develop any shitty business model their shitty mind can dream of and be told how it's shitty and to make it not shitty. A peasant child would first have to spend some time figuring out that the idea is shit, before spending more time how to make it not shit.

This is not saying the opportunity is impossible for the uninitiated, but it is simply further away.

Once the opportunity is presented, then sure, any janitor can present his case and make millions as easily as the next guy.

When you're in the bubble it is all easy and it all makes sense. You can't understand how difficult it can be to comprehend when you're on the outside though. I was on the outside and am moving in, slowly but surely, and I can say from experience, just getting to the point of comprehending how the game really works has taken a number of years. Had I an audience to teach me these things sooner, I would surely be in a much brighter situation today.

I'm not a robot.

>>578597

You do realize your examples of hard work are nowhere near the starting junction of any career path, right?

In other words, you ignored the hard work it takes to get to that hard work.

>>578520
There are gifted programs that scour the 3rd world looking for the 150+ kids,

they scoop them up and put them in training compounds,

each kid at 150+ is worth 20-80X the median life time income of the average american,

some of them make 1000x

look into the science of who're progressing science and technology

its almost exclusively a top 2% iq range

Bill gates has a gifted program that searches india too I think

>>579779

This would be a sound strategy if not for a few aspects you may be forgetting:

1) Who administrates these programs, and what is the kick-back?
2) What agencies permit these programs and what is their kick-back?
3) What schools or areas are the kids pulled from? Is any school a viable source, or are they specifically chosen?

These 3 elements add back up to produce the always fun-loving monkey on everyone's back known as politics. Will an administrator's or mid-level politician's child get a second look over, maybe? Does the agency permitting said programs get to sway which children at which schools are reviewed?

I have no doubt these programs have a genuine aim, but the possibility of un-genuine selective choice still remains.

>>578330
>is it a personality type?
>i've come to accept that it will never happen to me

Looks like you answered your own question. You got no fucking balls.

I hear that it's like a snowball effect. Once you make the first 100k or so, it's easier for it to grow more rapidly, or so I hear.

Many think that most rich people inherit their wealth, which is actually false. 80% of millionaires are "self made", or were not born wealthy

Here are some more statistics on millionaires:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html

It's not always about working "hard", it's about working smart. Timing is a big part. "Luck" is a factor, however it is said that "luck is what happens when preparations meets opportunity". Prepare your skills/whatevers and focus on recognizing opportunities.

>>578393
For your information, they have to think about their work too. They do not just repeat the same job all year around. They have to think about how to expand their business and improve their standing in the market. Do not tell me that a pizza delivery guy can become a manager by becoming good at delivering pizaa. He has to think about how to improve his product, how to attract more customers, how to increase the profit, how to decrease the cost, how the market is going to turn out in the future.
For god sake, that is what they mean by harkworking. Instead of just repeating the same routine, they have to make extra effort and extra miles. I have seen all the people complaining about working hard. They just do the same thing as they are told and do not go for extra effort. A good sales manager will try to improve his technique and skill on how to sell his stuffs to the customers. A technician manager needs to think about how to make the product meeting the market's need.

>>578356
lmao dat nigga a beta

>jk anon that's cool man

>>578393

>>578403
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
funniest comment seen today. Thanks anon for the laugh

>>578408
you're a fuckin idiot m8.
work smart. That's the word. Working smart means you make risky decisions and you keep pushing yourself in the business.
You seem like the type to give up just because other people in better positions beat you.

Luck isn't want got Bill Gates all his money. Well its a combination. He was there at the right time WITH the right mind set. If he was some mentally retarded kid, he wouldn't have been able to do shit with computers even if you brought a laptop from the future to his doorstep.

>>579807
>80% of millionaires are "self made", or were not born wealthy

Let me tell you a little story:

>be born in a well-off family in a rich country (but be technically poor since you are 2 years old lol)
>go to good high school with daddy's money
>then go to a good and expensive college like daddy
>major in law for example (not in ooga ooga studies)
>become lawyer at a reasonably big firm
>don't be great, just do correct work that's paid between $100k and $200k per year (AMERICA FUCK YEAH LOL, thank god you're not an average lawyer in portugal or thailand)
>at least save up one million or two in the next 20 years
>now you have to pronounce the classic words:
>"b-b-b-b-b-but i'm a self-made millionaire!!!! HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY OUTSTANDING TALENT!!!!!!!!!! I OWE NOTHING TO MY RELATIVES, I DID INHERIT NOTHING!!"

That was the marvelous story of your average self-made millionaire, feel free to ask if you want to be taught more secrets about life

There's millionaire-by-50 wealthy, and then there's billionaire-by-30 rich.

For the former:
* Sell to the masses to live with the classes
* Where there's muck, there's brass
Pick an unpleasant job that many people need (plumber, dry-cleaner, etc.), work hard at it (12 hour days), live VERY cheaply, skim cash for expenses, invest very conservatively. You'll end up wealthy.

For the latter:
* It's all about who you know
* Be a sociopath

Go to a prep school, then to an Ivy league. Hang out with ultra rich people or their kids. Start a company using other people's money. Screw over everyone who gets in your way. If it doesn't make you ultra rich, let it die, then start another one. Either you'll get rich or die trying.

Basically it's luck, but there are some other qualities you'll need to take advantage of the luck. You need connections. If you go to Yale/Harvard/Princeton/Stanford and need a great CFO, you can just ask one of your classmates or their parents. If you don't have those connections, you won't get the talent. Need a few $100,000 to start a company? Ask your roommate, or have him ask his parents. Don't have those connections? You won't get the startup money.

You'll still need to work hard. You'll also need to be ruthless and ultra competitive.

If you aren't already Valedictorian and willing to kill anyone who gets in your way, you likely won't get there.

Doubt me? Study the backgrounds of 20 ultra rich people, and see the common patterns.

Facebook would never have been successful if the founder went to University of Connecticut instead. Google wouldn't have made it if they'd gone to UCLA.

If you aren't already in that league, you'll never make it. But you can still be wealthy.

>>580077
I like your post, but I must add something:

The "working-class wealthy" stories are possible in America, but impossible in many other parts of the world. You become rich because your country is rich in the first place. If you're a plumber in Algeria or Paraguay, you will not be a millionaire at 50, even if you work 16 hours a day. Pay is simply too low. Even in first world countries like France, if you're wealthy at 50, it's more often because you inherited real estate from your dead parents; or because you're a doctor, lawyer, architect... from a well-off family already.

On the other hand, the billionaire-by-30 category is possible in any part of the world, including the most corrupt shitholes.

>>578494
wow amazing so if u met usher you too will be like beiber am i right? or maybe its cause he practices his singing and guitar playing skills at a very young age and was passionate about it?

Anyone can become beiber by your logic you dingus

>>580122
I am pretty sure his point was that Bieber wouldnt have had a career if he hadnt been lucky.

Success is directly linked to luck. The only thing you can do is try to manipulate it by rolling the dice as often as possible. The people who end up winning generally rolled them often enough. Anything can lead towards a career nowadays.

>I make my own luck
certainly applies to quite a few super rich people. Doesnt change the fact that luck is still a big part of the equation.

>>579582
Yes, I am CTO of a small tech startup. I've been programming professionally at Bay Area startups since 2007.

Read up on the history of the author of Flappy Bird. He's an interesting guy that just loves making games. He didn't sit down and put out ten games in two months and have one of them be a runaway success. You don't just sit down and crank out a game like that anyways without a minimum of a few years of programming experience under your belt.

There's no guarantee you will succeed, but there is a method which almost all successful people use: you try hard, you fail, you try hard again... repeat until success. It's not luck. It's preparation + opportunity. You gain experience and skill with each failure. Eventually, you will succeed or you will die. The first two startups I worked at died, the third was acquired, I ran my own business for a year which ultimately failed, and now I'm back in the saddle again.

>>580131
>you try hard, you fail, you try hard again... repeat until success. It's not luck
I dont know what it is with you people that you keep implying that luck has no impact on a persons success.

Youre beyond delusional if you seriously believe that. Trying hard, rolling the dice as often as possible still involves luck. Why cant you just accept that? No one says that this means that anyone can do it. But implying that a persons success is only determined by the amount of effort he puts into improving is fucking retarded.

>>578330
Looking at Forbes 400 richest:
1) Born with a million dollar trust fund
2) Father a congressman, family owned a chain of stores
3) Born middle class, right idea at right time
4-7) Heirs
8) Born upper middle class, right idea at right time
9-10) Heirs

So most billionaires inherit all their money, or at least millions of dollars which they invest profitably.

A few people are in the right place at the right time, see a good idea, work like hell on it with no life for years, and it pays off.

Most self-made billionaires say they don't do it for the money, which I believe. Because if you really have to bust your ass and have no life for each year you're making money, why wouldn't you start to relax at $5 million? Or $10 million? Or $50 million? Or $100 million? Or $500 million?

I got a raise once from $100k to $110k salary a year. An extra $10k a year didn't chase my lifestyle at all. Maybe instead of buying a new smartphone, tablet, or whatever every other month, I buy something like that every month. And still have money piling up. Waiting an extra month for a new tablet I don't really need is not that tough.

ITT: We constantly equate "physically tiring" to "hard"

>>580037
Yeah, but you either had the drive to accomplish that or you didn't. In essence, you were a self-made millionaire. At any point after high school (or 18 years old) you could have dropped out and not done dick with your life.

>>579985
I'm imagining him speedrunning his job like it's a Mario game. And then he asks his boss for his 250,000 dollars, and he's like "yeah you worked for like half an hour, so you technically only going to get paid half today. Here's $4.00"

>>579833
For your information, you're a faggot.

> I worked at national pizza chain as a driver. I wasn't even there before a month before I was doing managerial duties, but I didn't want to. They force you to cross train between jobs. It wasn't until about 3 months of employment that they made me a manager (in name only). I still didn't want it. But then I found a system. I realized the higher-ups rarely do their jobs. Since I was running the store with the GMs pincode, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. Over one year, I was making around 2,000 a week.

I can go into more specifics if I stay awak

>>579304
Don't forget the part that the illuminati play in it as well

>>578356
>That survivorship bias

How can one become so sheltered?

>>578375
true middle class spotted

>>579341
>If single moms were smart they wouldn't be single moms, OP.

are you srs nigga?

>implying that being single has anything to do with level of intelligence

go kill yourself.

>>580134
Actually there are so many replies in this thread I dont know what exactly is happening. But if you scroll right to the top and see how the argument started, and majority of the people aslo agree that luck is in play as well.

The reason there's such a shitstorm is because some jackass poorfag was saying that it ONLY DEPENDS ON LUCK. That programming something takes no skill. That the business people's mindset and risk taking does not matter because they were lucky to not fuck it up.

Bottom line is, its a combination of things. Luck is a major part of it too in its pure definition of the word. But what all the sensible posters here are saying is that inherited wealth, the right connections and innovating something at the right time is still luck. But you can't change the fuckin fact that if Kim fuckin Kardashian was born in Bill Gates' household, she wouldn't have become a billionaire.

This whole "luck" argument stemmed from the stupid complaint of "I WOULD BE A BILLIONAIRE TOO IF I WAS BORN IN THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCE AS BILL GATES". I get that. I get that there are a whole lot of people who may be as hard working as Bill Gates. Nobody is saying that in terms of luck, you weren't born in that same exact position he was in. But too bad we don't know each and every fuckin poster in this thread. That way we could really honestly call out personally if they are just "unlucky" or a lazy sack of shit who only complains and claims to be Bill Gates but ends up playing on LoL and Netflix for 3 days straight when their new show is on and only "sorta want to be rich".

I'm 20, making about 25k a year living at home

how do I start my own multinational conglomerate? I want compete with Samsung and Mitsubishi

>>580327

Didn't you read the thread? You just need a little elbow grease and the right attitude.

>>580077
Do these connections have to be acquired in college for it to work out?

I didn't get into an Ivy League college. I don't have the rich friends you're talking about but I have the determination. My father owns a business, and he told me that the only reason why he's not a millionaire right now (he works in sales and trading) is because he's got ethics, and didn't grab the many opportunities he's had to fuck everyone over and come out on top. I'm not like him.

What advice can you give me?
I'll still go to college, but the networking/nepotism part is worrying me.

>>580383
We are talking about billionairs here. You can easily become a millionaire without having any connections. With a degree in statistics, finance, the right engineering field or law you can probably become one before even being 35. It just requires dedication. You wont get there if youre only willing to work 40 hours a week. Especially in Finance and Law you will have to slave away ~65 hours minimum per week for the first years.

It shouldnt be your goal to become a billionaire. I doubt that anyone ever had that goal since its impossible to have an impact on it. Whether your idea turns into the next Google or Facebook is something you have little to no impact on.

I wouldnt worry too much. Then again, youre american. I dont know how much people value Ivy League background.

>>580386
I want to become as rich as possible. That can mean anything, but money is my priority.
>statistics
Why is stats so valued? Especially compared to stuff such as math or applied math?
Isn't it seen as too "nerdy" especially when applying to investment banking jobs?

I don't care if I have to work hard, I'm ready to work 80 hour weeks if it pays off.

>>580393
No offense but I have my doubts that you understand half the shit youre saying. There are a truckload of people who claim that they are "ready to work 80 hours a week" and only a fraction of them makes it. The majority isnt even taken seriously because you can immediately spot that the guy will have trouble staying concentrated for 40 hours.

This sort of workload isnt something you are willing to take, or at least you not putting it that way. Saying something like "ill work until the job is done" is way smarter.

>Why is stats so valued
Because you can enter almost any field. Not only banking, but also work in marketing/conversion. Theres a shit ton of money to be made as well. Math is not specific enough. Unless youre a fucking genius (in which case your major doesnt even matter) you will have a hard time getting past engineers for example.

I cant think of a single field that has less relation to an actual job.

As I've got older, I've made more money doing less work.

>>580134
A large part of business success is identifying a burgeoning market and supplying something that meets its needs. If you become skilled at identifying and meeting those needs, you will be repeatedly successful at business.

You not only have to work hard to be successful, you have to work hard on the right things. It's not luck. It's foresight, which is a skill which can be developed.

Somewhat related question: do you believe people like Warren Buffet or any self-made investor are just lucky?

>>578330
That pic is the ultimate example that money can't buy class. Disgusting McMansion shit.

>>581991
That depends whether you think a stock market is a marginally rational/predictable entity or a totally irrational/unpredictable entity.

>>581998
In 100 years this disgusting McMansion shit will be the epitome of class, if it still standing.

E.g.:
"Large estate living in a classical early 21st century mansion. Build from real wood and featuring marble countertop kitchens this is the epitome of high living. None of that modern day neoplastic construction, for serious buyers only. Suggested price: $44,000,000".

ITT: zero rich people

Wait, do you guys think there's ONE way to become rich? It varies by literally every person who gains wealth. Bill Gates is different in every way from Wozniak/Jobs except for both being in the tech sector. If you ACTUALLY want to get rich, you won't find it looking at some stupid fucking book or forum. If that's what you choose to do to get rich, you're in love with the idea of having money, but you don't really want it. Just wait for virtual reality to become good if you can't take the time to get rich. If you ever have to ask yourself how to get rich, don't worry about it because it'll never happen.

>>578330
From everything I've seen and read working as a consultant for over 8 years, it's a combination of being very well connected, having the work drive of Alexander the Great, and being at the right place at the right time.

>>578330
it was't that hard in past decades. Wages for even stupid occupations were quite high and we had an overall 50 year market rally, which is unprecedented.

In conditions like that it's 100% discipline.

>>578330

The trick is lowering your goals.

Because most of those people just start out trying to get by.

And then the ones destined for success realize 'holy shit I can be middle class'.

And then they innovate a little more and realize 'I can get evne richer'.

Me, I'm just trying to get by.

I don't know whether I'll do it by writing a book, crime, online gaming, or something else entirely, but I want to make it to the point that I don't need to work for anyone but me, and I want to have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life in my family home.

>>582076
This. Super wealthy and successful people are never satisfied.

>>578330
>>578330
Generations of nepotism.
By force.
Through the magic of products unbounded by physical production and can appeal to global audiences.

The third one is very modern and channeling wealth into progressively fewer and fewer hands.

>>581991
Youre missing the point. This topic is about billionaires and I would go as far and say that becoming a billionaire involves almost exclusively luck.

You dont know if your idea has the potential to turn into a multi billion dollar company. All you can do is try to figure out how big the potential market is and then hope that its successful. Anything can make the difference between. A great idea can turn into a 50 million company or into a monopoly. Its something that is impossible to forsee.

Besides, you have severe trouble comprehending simple english. I never claimed that these people only were lucky. I simply said that luck has a big impact on success and everyone who claims that it doesnt is way too delusional to post in this thread.

Why do you even bring up Buffet? Hes the son of a former congressman. Sure, this doesnt mean that youre going to be successful by default but its the perfect example for being lucky. I dont even have to analyze his business decisions to find a 50/50 situation. His background alone already opened him a truckload of doors.

1 develop a product
2 sell it for 100th of people
3
4 profit

>>582337
Everything has a degree of luck, that doesn't mean everything is luck based. Getting rich requires being in a position where you can take advantage of opportunities if they appear, and then having an opportunity appear, and then working your ass off until you bleed and cry to turn that opportunity into success. Most people fail the first point completely and then assume the problem was bad luck.

>>582076
By "lowering your goals", do you really mean making step-by-step milestones? Because increasing you personal standards of living is a good way to push yourself. As opposed to just saying "I will try to become a billionaire". So making goals like "I have 5k now, I want 100k in 12-18 months", and then "I have 100k now, let's get 1million in 12 months", and so on.

And the numbers I just gave are arbitrary, but depending on the ind ustry, are these realistic numbers? How can you grow your wealth 10-20x in less than 2 years? I'm thinking a successful start-up or a trading

>>582341

Being successful isn't entirely luck based. Being a billionaire is.

>>582341
Youre still missing the point. This topic is about billionaires, not about being successful or rich (unless you only consider billionaires rich).

Almost every billionaire in existence has a wealthy family standing behind him. Theres a gigantic difference between having a congressman as your father or a guy who sells tupperware.

No one claimed that its entirely luck based. And I know that the difference between someone being successful and some other guy failing often is the amount of effort either of them put into their project. But my post was about some guy claiming that theres no luck involved at all. And that simply is bullshit.

Becoming a millionaire can be accomplished through hard work alone. Becoming a billionaire however not.

>>582344
Being a billionaire cannot be only based on luck you faggot. Especially for those who already have millions. Maybe in some of the recent cases where some fuckboy startup gets randomly bought out for billions, but 90% of billionaires are actually extremely intelligent individuals. Many of you faggots mistake being opportunistic for "luck". Many people with the same opportunities as some of these billionaires would not be able to take advantage of certain opportunities as effectively

>>582343

I'd say those numbers are high, but the idea is sound even if the numbers are chosen arbitrarily.

I just think it's a dangerous road to keep wanting more and more; sometimes you have to know when to stabilize yourself where you are at and throw down all your retirement preparations and other stuff you need before moving on.

That said, I don't begrudge you for wanting more, I just have seen and heard enough about 'bubbles bursting' to know that if I get to even a basic level of survivability, I would focus on entrenching myself rather than taking too many risks to get richer.

If the reason cannot be found in this life, its certainly good karma from previous lives, so start behaving correctly and honorably and you may have a good chance after your bad karma worn off.